


Warm Bodies

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Stargate Universe
Genre: AU, Bed-sharing, Escort!Belle, F/M, Friendship, No Smut, Pre-Relationship, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 21:03:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15590658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Nicholas Rush has not been able to sleep well since the death of his wife two years ago. The bed just feels too big and cold without her. In a last ditch attempt to have a proper night’s sleep, he hires an escort to share his bed and give him a warm body to hold through the night.Belle French is that escort…No smut, but adult themes.





	Warm Bodies

**Author's Note:**

> An extension of my escort!Belle 'verse on tumblr, but it stands alone.

The phone seemed to be ringing for a very, very long time and Rush was beginning to think that no-one was going to pick up. Perhaps it was an omen, telling him that this was a stupid idea and he should never even have considered it.

He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose against the rapidly oncoming tension headache caused by too much caffeine and too little sleep. He’d always been a light sleeper and he could get by on very little sleep, but this was just getting ridiculous. He couldn’t go on like this much longer. He’d managed, sitting on that edge, for a long time, for two years in fact, but he’d finally had to admit that he’d reached his tipping point. It couldn’t go on.

When the phone was finally answered by a somewhat breathless voice, as if the person on the other end had just run up three flights of stairs to get to the phone, it startled him a little.

_“Dragon Escort Services, Cara speaking. How may I help you today?”_

Rush took a deep breath. “I’d like to book an escort please, for tomorrow night if possible.”

_“Certainly, I’ll see who we have available. Are you looking for a male or female companion?”_

“Female, please.”

_“All right. Do you have any of our escorts in mind?”_  the voice asked, calm and patient.

“No…” Rush cringed. “This is the first time I’ve done this.”

_“That’s not a problem. Do you have any characteristics that you would particularly like? Personality or looks? I’d just like to try and match your preferences as closely as possible.”_

“Just… not blonde,” Rush said. If he was going to do this, then he didn’t want to be reminded of Gloria at any point.

_“Not a problem. We do have a suitable lady available tomorrow evening; her name is Lacey. Would you like me to tell you a little more about her?”_

“Please.”

_“She’s brunette with blue eyes, in her late twenties, very petite. She’s been with us for a few years now and is one of our most praised ladies; she’s very sweet-natured, well-read and highly intelligent, so you won’t be wanting for conversation topics depending on where you would like your appointment to go.”_

Rush nodded slowly. “She sounds good, thank you.” He paused. “I… I wasn’t intending there to be any…”

_“Intimacy?”_  the woman on the other end of the phone suggested.

“Yes. No. Well, yes, sort of…” Did bed-sharing count as intimacy? “I’m not looking for sex, but there might be… intimacy.” Rush suppressed a groan; he was making a right pig’s ear of this.

_“Don’t worry sir. You are paying for time, not for services. What you do in that time is entirely up to you. Like I said, Lacey is an excellent conversation partner.”_

“Yes. Thank you. Can I book her please?”

_“Certainly. How long would you like the appointment to be? I can give you a breakdown of our prices.”_

Rush listened as Cara told him how the pricing worked, but he already knew how long he wanted.

“I’d like a full twelve hours, please, an overnight stay. Eight till eight?”

_“That’s absolutely fine. Can I take a name please?”_

“Nicholas Rush.” Dammit, he should probably have used a pseudonym, but it was too late now.

_“All right, Mr Rush, you’re booked in. Where is the appointment taking place?”_

Rush gave her his address. He knew he’d never be able to get to sleep in an unfamiliar bed, however strange it might be to have an unfamiliar woman in his own.

Cara took him through the motions of payment, and then it was all over. Lacey would be coming to him at eight o’clock the next evening. That would give him a couple of hours to get used to her before it was time to go to sleep.

He hadn’t slept properly since Gloria’s passing, and he had finally come to the begrudging conclusion that it was the lack of a second person in the bed beside him that was causing his restlessness. They had shared a bed for over twenty years. The only time they’d slept apart had been when Nick was at conferences, which didn’t count because the beds were uncomfortable and unfamiliar, and when Gloria had been in the hospital, which didn’t count because then he couldn’t sleep for worrying about her.

A part of him hated himself for resorting to this, paying for overnight company just so that he could get some sleep with a warm body to cling to through the night, but in the end, as he had to keep reminding himself,  _Gloria wasn’t coming back_. She wasn’t ever going to be there for him to hold again. He knew that if he could talk to Gloria right now, call her up on the afterlife hotline – not that he was entirely sure there was an afterlife at all, but the thought gave him some measure of comfort – then she would back him up and tell him that he was doing the right thing and that if this was what it took to stop him running on empty, then this was what he should do. He had held her close for the last time, and as much as he hated to feel like he was marring the memory of their relationship by inviting another woman into their marital bed, he really, really needed to sleep, and to get to sleep he needed someone to hold.

Well, at least, he thought he did. Whether his appointment with Lacey would prove fruitful or not remained to be seen. A small part of him was considering calling the agency straight back and telling them that it had all be a terrible mistake and cancelling the booking, continuing to struggle along with his insomnia as best he could.

He took a deep breath. He could do this.

X

Although for obvious reasons, the escort agency’s details were not programmed into her phone, Belle recognised the number immediately and answered, shoving it under her ear and continuing to type up her latest lab results. That number would always be Cara Mallory calling her from Dragon.

“Hi Mal.”

_“Hello Belle, love. I’ve got an assignment for you for tomorrow night.”_

Belle grimaced at her laptop screen; although she’d said she’d work the next night she’d been hoping to have it off in order to get up to date with this latest part of her thesis for Gold’s review; she was on the verge of running behind having worked three nights already that week.

_“It’s an overnight,”_  Mal added, and Belle screwed her face up even more. If she had an overnight, then she’d be good for nothing the next day, and Sunday would be spent playing catch up. She wouldn’t be able to take any appointments next week at all if she wanted her latest appraisal data handed in on time. Gold wasn’t as strict with his PhD students as he was with his under- and post-grads, but the longer she took to complete this doctorate, the longer she had to keep working to pay her way. It was a Catch 22.

“Ok,” she said, replying with a brightness that she didn’t feel and that she knew Mal would notice was false. “Who and when and where?”

_“His name is Nicholas Rush, and it’s a private home address in North Street. Dove will drive you, of course.”_

Belle’s brow furrowed in a reaction that had nothing to do with losing study time. She’d heard that name before, she was sure of it, but she couldn’t place it.

_“Belle? Is everything ok?”_

“Yeah… Just trying to figure out where I know the name from. I don’t know him, but the name’s familiar. Enough of that, go on.”

_“Tomorrow night, eight till eight.”_  Mal paused.  _“I think you might be in luck with this one, actually. He said that he wasn’t anticipating sexual contact, but you know that sometimes these things change once the nerves have worn off a bit. I’ve had the type before, although I’ll admit this is the first time I’ve had a man make such a request. Jeff has a regular who just doesn’t like to be alone at night. Sometimes people just want someone to hold.”_

“All right.” Belle nodded, perhaps her weekend wasn’t as wasted as she thought and she’d still be able to meet Ruby as she’d planned. “Any special requests, anything to be wary of?”

_“No. It’s his first call and he’s obviously incredibly nervous, but I thought that you could put him at ease. It’s what you do best, after all.”_

Belle gave a snort of laughter. “Oh yes, indeed. Anything else?”

_“He didn’t want a blonde, so no last minute bleach jobs,”_  Mal said wryly.  _“Actually that’s why he’s come to you. Ariel’s not working tomorrow as she’s out of town, Mei’s already booked and Anna isn’t taking overnights yet.”_

Belle sighed. All the other ladies on the agency’s books were blonde except Merida, who didn’t take male clients, so naturally she was the last one standing.

“Ok, I’ll be ready for Dove to pick me up. I’ll even pack nightwear, just in case.”

_“That’s my girl.”_

Belle laughed, rolling her eyes, and set the appointment in her diary before saying her goodbyes to Mal and hanging up, running a hand through her hair and stretching the cricks out of her neck. If she wasn’t going to have tomorrow night to work on her thesis, then she would have to make up for it now.

She went into the kitchen to make some more coffee; she was going to need it if she was going to get anywhere. Waiting for the kettle to boil, she wondered again where she knew the name Rush from, and whether it was going to cause a problem when she arrived at his home the next day.

Belle shrugged, taking her coffee back through to her room and getting going on her work again. The niggle was still there at the back of her mind, but she’d managed to get through enough strange situations before that she didn’t think she’d have any more trouble with this one than with any of her other clients. It was strange for her to get someone whose main goal in hiring an escort wasn’t sex. She’d had a few jobs in the past that did involve actually escorting people to places, but there had always been added perks afterwards in the hotel room once the event had finished. She’d never had a home address visit that didn’t end with sex.

Anything could happen, after all. Belle knew that; she’d been doing this job for long enough that she didn’t think that anything would shock her anymore. Whatever happened, happened, and she would be prepared for all eventualities. She always was, that was one of the reasons why she was the go-to for Mal whenever something unusual came in.

Still, she really did want to know where she’d heard that name before.

X

It was almost eight o’clock, and Rush was beginning to regret his decision again. Any moment now, Lacey would be coming to his doorstep, and whilst he had no idea what she was expecting, it probably wasn’t someone who was as jittery as a deer in the headlights and who was doped up on over-counter painkillers to overcome the splitting headache he’d suffered under for most of the afternoon as a result of caffeine withdrawal. He’d reluctantly admitted that the vast doses of coffee he was taking to stay awake during the day were probably not helping him at night, but the combined force of no caffeine plus his mind second-guessing this all-important appointment had turned him into a bundle of tension. He was dressed in his normal jeans and shirt, pacing up and down the hallway and ducking into all the rooms as he tried to calm down. At least he knew that it was too late to back out now. Turning into the study, he looked around at all the whiteboards and post-its, things that had, about an hour ago, made perfect sense to him. Now they could have been in Cantonese for all he was taking in.

A car pulled up outside and idled; he heard a door close and the sound of high heels making their measured way up the garden path. Perhaps he could pretend that he wasn’t home? No, he’d paid a not insubstantial amount of money for tonight, and if he chickened out now then he was still in exactly the same position as he had been in before. Besides, whoever was outside could see that the lights were on and could probably see his silhouette moving around behind the thin drapes in the study. It would look incredibly strange if he were suddenly to hide under the desk now.

The doorbell rang, and Rush went to answer it, blinking at the sight that met him. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but the woman standing on the doorstep was certainly not it. He knew that Cara had told him that she was petite, but he hadn’t been expecting someone quite  _so_  petite. She must be tiny when she took her shoes off. Her overnight bag looked like it was almost bigger than she was.

“Hello,” she said brightly, with a warm smile. “You must be Nicholas. I’m Lacey.”

Rush nodded, and stepped aside to allow her into the house. The black hatchback waiting at the curb pulled away, but not before Rush had got a glimpse of the person driving it, a huge bald man who could probably lift Lacey off the floor with one hand. He gulped, glad that the chauffeur wasn’t sticking around.

Rush closed the door against the cool evening air and turned back to face Lacey, who was standing looking at him a little expectantly, but there was nothing judgmental in her gaze. He felt a little bit more at ease now; since her presence was very much in proportion rather than the larger than life personality he had feared, it gave him a feeling of being a little bit more in control of the situation, of knowing a little bit better where he stood. Of course, now that she was inside the house, he had even less idea what the hell he was going to do now, other than the fact she was there, and she’d be there for the next twelve hours, and hopefully at some point during those twelve hours he’d get some decent kip.

Lacey glanced around the hallway, as if she could tell that just looking at him was unnerving him a little bit, letting his mind catch up to the situation. Rush took a deep breath. He could do this. He was a scientist for fuck’s sake, and that meant that he ought to be thinking logically and rationally and not getting caught up in this spiral of jumbling emotions that he really couldn’t make sense of. For a start, Lacey was beautiful. Oh, he had no doubt that all of the agency’s escorts were very good-looking, but there was something in Lacey’s natural, open smile that gave her true beauty. Having not made this appointment with any kind of attraction in mind, his brain was now going into overdrive, not knowing whether finding her attractive was going to be a help or a hindrance when push came to shove. She was wearing a deep blue coat belted at the waist, and black tights with shiny stilettos like polished onyx, but he couldn’t see a hemline below the coat, and for a terrifying moment he wondered if she was wearing anything other than underwear beneath it. Thankfully she chose that moment to undo the coat and slip it off her shoulders, revealing a classic little black dress beneath. Although there was a coat stand right next to her, she folded the garment neatly over her arms and continued her appraisal of the hallway as Rush got his act together. He saw the moment her eyes alighted on the dresser, and banged his head back against the door with a groan as he realised that she was looking at the photo from his and Gloria’s wedding that resided there.

“I’m not married,” he said quickly, although since he hadn’t taken his wedding ring off either, he knew that he couldn’t exactly be inspiring a lot of confidence. “Not… Not anymore.”

Lacey just looked at him with her lovely, open smile.

“It’s not my place to judge, Nicholas. This is your time and I’m here for you.”

“I know, I just feel like that ought to be said.” He paused, and felt his shoulders sagging. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” he muttered. It was a terrifying admission to make, really, for someone who was so used to being in charge and being in control of situations as he was. Saying that he was completely lost was not something that he would ever do, and admitting to needing help was difficult.

“Shall we move out of the hallway?” Lacey suggested.

Rush nodded.

“Yeah, that would be a good start.”

X

That Nicholas was completely out of his depth was obvious, but as Belle had said, it was not her place to judge. This was his time and his appointment, so they would go at whatever pace he wanted and do whatever made him feel the most comfortable.

He led her through into the living room and indicated for her to take a seat wherever, and he ran a hand through his hair.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

Belle shook her head. “I’m fine, thank you, unless you’re having something.”

“No… I mean, I’d happily kill someone for some coffee right now but I need to sleep later, so…” He tailed off. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. I can understand that it can be a bit overwhelming.” Belle patted the seat on the sofa beside her, and Nicholas sank into it, still looking at a complete loss. “Why don’t we start by discussing what you want from tonight, and that might make it less awkward.”

He nodded, but remained silent for a long time.

“How much did Cara tell you about what our conversation entailed?” he asked eventually. “I don’t want to go over it all again if possible.”

“She said that you were looking for an overnight stay, and that you weren’t anticipating any intimacy. Are you just looking for companionship?”

“Yeah.” Nicholas sighed. He was staring at the middle distance rather than looking at her, but Belle didn’t take her eyes off him, trying to read the mixed signals that he was giving out. Now that she had the opportunity to really observe him at leisure, she could see that his face was familiar to her just as his name was, but she couldn’t place it at all, and he was clear that unless he had an extremely accomplished poker face, he didn’t know her either. His general discomfiture put paid to the poker face idea, although she thought that he might have a very good one if he hadn’t been so highly strung at that particular juncture.

“I just want to share a bed with someone,” he said, still not looking at her. “Since I lost my wife, I haven’t been able to sleep, and I think that it’s because I miss having someone else in bed with me. Not doing anything,” he hastened to clarify. “Just sleeping. But being there.”

Belle nodded. “That’s absolutely fine,” she said. “That’s normal. It can be hard to get used to such a big upheaval.”

There was a long silence as Nicholas digested her words, and finally he sprung up off the sofa into animated life once more.

“I think I need a drink,” he muttered, going over to a cabinet and taking out a bottle of whisky and a heavy crystal tumbler, pouring a generous measure and knocking back half of it before turning back to Belle. “Do you want one?”

Belle nodded. She would drink if he was drinking, to make him more at ease, although she never liked to have too much when she was working. She liked to keep her wits about her all the time. There was something in her line of work that made her think of the chameleon, changing tastes and looks and manners to suit the mood and the person that she was with. She read the mood and reacted accordingly, although she had to admit that Nicholas was incredibly hard to read.

He was frustrated, she could tell that much, and she knew that he was floundering and too proud to ask for help. He refilled his whisky and brought hers over to her, settling back down on the sofa. Belle took a sip of the amber liquid and let it burn down her throat. She’d never been much of a whisky drinker, but this was good stuff, proper scotch. Well, he was a Scotsman; he probably knew his whisky a lot better than she did.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. “About your wife?”

Nicholas scoffed. “Are you a therapist as well?”

Belle shrugged. “Listening is an important skill in all lines of work. Whatever’s going on in your head and whyever you asked for me are your business, of course. I don’t want to pry, but it’s obvious that you’ve got something on your chest that you need to get off it. Sometimes it’s easier to confide in a stranger than in someone you know.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Really.”

“You know I’m not going to judge you, and you know that we never have to see each other again after tonight. I’d say that took some of the pressure off.”

“I suppose you’ve got a point.”

There was a long silence, and Belle continued to sip her whisky, observing Nicholas. She could tell that he was lonely, him hiring her was proof enough of that. But she got the impression that not only was he lonely in that sense, but he was truly alone in the world, with no-one to confide in at all, no friend to lend a hand or a shoulder to cry on. He was prickly and guarded, walls up, and she had no desire to try and break them down if he didn’t want them broken.

It was a delicate balance to be struck, between needing privacy and needing help, and Belle would help him to strike it if she could. This was a man very obviously at the end of his rope, so used to not needing anyone and perhaps not having anyone to turn to that now that he had hit this impasse, he had no idea how to handle it. This wasn’t something that he could fix by himself; the very nature of his problem required a second person in order to fix it. That was what Belle intended to do.

“It was cancer,” Nicholas said eventually. “I think that made it worse. The fact that I had so long to get used to the idea and yet I still can’t get over it.”

“Maybe. But there’s no point in beating yourself up about it. You’re not betraying her at all. You’re just trying to save yourself.”

Nicholas sighed, and Belle knew that there was a lot more to this story than met the eye. She wanted to know what it was; she wanted to comfort this man and help him heal as much as she could, but at the same time she knew that it would be a difficult thing to work through. He wasn’t going to volunteer any more information, so she didn’t ask for it. It would come with time. At least she had an insight now.

“Self-preservation is something of a skill of mine,” Nicholas said, and Belle just nodded, continuing to watch him over the rim of her tumbler.

They fell back into silence, but there was an ease to it now. The air was a little clearer, although things were still awkward, and Belle finished her whisky, setting the tumbler down on the glass end table with a chink that sounded far too loud in the quiet living room.

“Shall we go to bed, Nicholas?” she asked.

He looked at her startled for a moment.

“I meant to sleep,” she clarified. “Unless you want something more, of course.”

Nicholas shook his head. “No. I just want to sleep.”

“Then maybe going to bed would be a good place to start.”

Nicholas led her up the stairs into the master bedroom and Belle slipped into the en suite to change. The pyjamas she’d brought weren’t exactly demure, but they were the least sensual set that she owned aside from her outsized sleep t-shirts with Harry Potter logos on, and she had wanted something pretty and feminine in case the appointment did take that turn. A silky camisole and shorts in dark magenta pink with lace edgings, nothing overly revealing.

Nicholas was also wearing pyjamas when she came out of the bathroom, a plain t-shirt and plaid pants.

“I normally sleep on the right,” he said.

Belle nodded. “However you feel most comfortable.”

They got into bed and Nicholas killed the lights, and they both lay there for a while. Belle propped herself up on one elbow, wondering how the logistics were going to work and deciding that it would be best just to let Nicholas take the lead for a while. She could prompt him along if necessary later. He stared up at the ceiling for a while, but then he reached across and took her hand, closing his fingers lightly around her own.

“It’s the lying here that gets me,” he said. “Every time. Just me in the dark, alone with my thoughts. It’s easier to stay awake working most of the time. At least then I don’t have to think about any of it.”

“You need to sleep, Nicholas,” Belle said. “Everyone does.”

He laughed softly. “Gloria used to say that. She asked me what I was trying to prove by staying awake all the time.”

“What are you trying to prove?”

“That it was all worth it in the end, I guess. That her death meant something. I thought that if I just kept working, I could make it mean something. But now I just can’t function anymore.” He sighed. “You don’t want to hear all this.”

“I don’t mind. It’s what I’m here for. I’ll give you what you need, and if that’s a friendly ear and another body beside you, then that’s what you’ll have. I’m here. I’ll take care of you.”

“Thank you.”

He turned onto his side, moving a little closer, and Belle chanced to put an arm around him. He tensed for a moment, then relaxed into her embrace, closing his eyes.

“Thank you,” he said again.

He didn’t speak again. Belle could tell that he was still awake; she had spent so much time lying beside sleeping men that she could tell within just a couple of breaths. Still, he seemed to be much more relaxed now than he had been throughout the rest of the evening. She stroked his hair out of his face, not feeling sleepy herself yet.

She didn’t get to do this often, the kissing and cuddling part that usually came after the deed. Normally it would then be time for her to get up and go, and it was one of the few regrets that she had, the lack of closeness. Even though she and Nicholas were still both fully clothed and had no intentions of taking this any further, there was something in the act that was much more intimate than her usual appointments. There was a raw and naked vulnerability in what they were doing, and Belle felt privileged to think that this man, so obviously guarded and alone in the world, would trust her to see him in such a vulnerable position.

He was a complicated man, that was certain, but she thought that she understood enough to know what he needed. She pulled him in a little closer against her and he did not resist, instead just putting a warm arm around her middle.

“Is this ok?” he asked, still not opening his eyes.

Belle smiled, continuing to stroke his hair.

“This is perfect.”

X

Nicholas was still fast asleep when Belle’s alarm went off, warning her that Dove would be pulling up outside soon. He had turned over during the night but kept his hold on her arm, and now she was spooning up behind him, her chest pressed in close against his back and her fingers still interlaced with his.

It was so different to how she usually woke up. She hadn’t woken up with her arms around someone for a very long time, and if she wasn’t careful, then she was going to get used to it.

Carefully, she detached her hold on him, trying not to wake him as she moved away and went to get changed. She stretched out all her limbs and took a look in the bathroom mirror, smiling as she saw herself looking bright and refreshed, a far cry from how she usually looked in the morning after an appointment. If they were all like this one, then she’d happily work a lot more.

Nicholas stirred as she came out of the bathroom, rolling over onto his back and looking at her through sleepy eyes.

“Is it time already?” he asked.

Belle nodded. “Yes. I didn’t want to wake you, not when you looked so peaceful and I know how much you need your sleep.”

“Yes. That’s definitely the best night’s sleep I’ve had in the last two years. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Belle smiled. “I think I can probably say the same, at least when it comes to appointments. I don’t often get to wake up next to someone. It’s a strange feeling.” She paused. “If you ever want to do this again, I would be more than happy to return.”

Nicholas nodded. “Thank you.”

She heard the car pulling up outside the house and went over to peer out of the curtains; as expected it was Dove, right on time as normal.

“I’ll see myself out,” she said. “I think you could probably use all the extra hours you can get.”

Nicholas gave a snort of laughter. “You’re probably right. Thank you again.”

“My pleasure.”

She made her way out of the house and slipped into the passenger seat.

“Everything all right?” Dove asked.

“Yes. Everything’s very good, actually.”

“You’re certainly perkier than you normally are of a morning.”

“Well, that’s what happens when you have a good night’s sleep.”

Dove didn’t say anything else, content to know that Belle was safe and happy. He had always been a man of few words, and his silence gave Belle time to reflect on what had been one of her most interesting appointments.

It was only once she was back on campus on Monday evening, walking away from the chemistry department and past the physics building that she realised where she knew the name Nicholas Rush from and why he seemed familiar. He was there in the foyer, speaking to one of the other astrophysics professors, and it suddenly clicked that she was so used to knowing him as Dr Rush that knowing him as just Nicholas Rush had thrown her off course.

Presently he looked up and their eyes met. Time seemed to freeze for a moment, and then Belle just gave a little nod of recognition.  _You’re safe with me_ , she was trying to say.

Rush returned the nod, a little unsurely.

_I know. Thank you._


End file.
